1. Systematic Theology II The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Personality of the Holy Spirit
and
The Deity of the Holy Spirit

2. The Personality of the Holy Spirit
“The Bible is clear in teaching that the Holy Spirit is a person, not just power, force or abstract energy of some kind…The Holy Spirit is a person in the same sense that the Father and the Son are persons. Therefore, His power, activities, and ministry should not be understood in quantitative dimensions but rather in terms of personality and personal relationships” (McCune, p. 245).
Talk about encounter with JWs.

3. Properties of Personality are Possessed by the Holy Spirit
Life
Life is activity or energy directed by mind or intelligence. The Holy Spirit is called the “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2).
Intelligence
The Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God (1 Cor 2:11). He can intercede for believers because He knows the will of God and God knows the mind of the Spirit (Rom 8:26-27).
Purpose
Purpose is reaction to a future goal as if it were already present. Regarding gifts, the Holy Spirit “distribut[es] to each one individually just as He wills” (1 Cor 12:11).
Action
The Spirit comforts, commands, creates, empowers, guides, intercedes, prays, rebukes, speaks, teaches, and testifies, just to name a few.

4. Properties of Personality are Possessed by the Holy Spirit
Freedom
The Spirit is free in the sense of being self-determining and independent of created things. The Spirit, according to His sovereign will, directed Paul and his companions on their second missionary journey (Acts 16:6-7).
Self-Consciousness
This is the ability to make oneself the object of his own thought. Only self-conscious, personal beings have the ability to use language and communicate in propositions (e.g., Acts 13:2).
Emotion
For example, the Spirit can be sorrowed or grieved by disobedience in a believer (Eph 4:30).

5. Personality Pronouns Are Used of the Holy Spirit
Throughout His upper room discourse in John 14, Christ used personal, masculine pronouns to speak of the Spirit (e.g. John 14:26; 15:26; 16:7-8, 13-14).
Ekeinos is used for several of these.

6. The Term Another Helper Denotes Personality
“The Greek term parakletos means fundamentally a helper. Christ was such a Helper; the Holy Spirit is “another” (allon – another of the same kind) Helper. Only a person could take the place of the Son during His absence” (McCune, p. 249).

7. Personal Associations Are Ascribed to the Holy Spirit
With the Father and the Son
“in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19).
“Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge” (2 Cor 1:21-22).
“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14).
With Christians
“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials” (Acts 15:28).

8. Personal Reactions Are Attributed to the Holy Spirit and Actions toward Him as a Person are Performed
The following only make sense if the Spirit is a personal being.
Tested – “Why is it that you have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test?” (Acts 5:9).
Resisted – “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did” (Acts 7:51).
Blasphemed – “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven” (Matt 12:31).
Insulted – “How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?” (Heb 10:29).
Lied to – But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back some of the price of the land?” (Acts 5:3).
Obeyed - And while Peter was reflecting on the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Behold, three men are looking for you. But arise, go downstairs, and accompany them without misgivings; for I have sent them Myself.” And Peter went down to the men and said, “Behold, I am the one you are looking for; what is the reason for which you have come?” (Acts 10:19-21).
Gravity can be resisted, but it is unaffected by such action. Animals have no consciousness of these kinds of actions, but the Spirit does.

9. The Deity of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is co-equal, co-existent and co-eternal with the Father and the Son.

10. The Holy Spirit Is Identified with the God of the Old Testament
Compare:
Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the LORD…”
Hebrews 10: And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them After those days…”
Psalm 95:7-9 Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness; “When your fathers tested Me, They tried Me, though they had seen My work.”
Hebrews 3:7-9 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, As in the day of trial in the wilderness, Where your fathers tried Me by testing Me, And saw My works for forty years.”
“In the Old Testament, God is the ‘God of glory’ (Ps 29:3); in the New Testament Jesus is the ‘Lord of glory’ (1 Cor 2:8) and the Holy Spirit is called the ‘Spirit of glory’ (1 Pet 4:14)” (McCune, p. 256).
Read Daniel 7 first

11. The Holy Spirit Is Called God
2 Samuel 23:1-3 Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, And the man who was raised on high declares, The anointed of the God of Jacob, And the sweet psalmist of Israel, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, And His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, The Rock of Israel spoke to me, ‘He who rules over men righteously, Who rules in the fear of God…’”
1 Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

12. The Holy Spirit Has the Attributes of God
Omniscience
Isaiah 40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him?
1 Corinthians 2:9-11 but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Omnipresence
Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?
Omnipotence
Psalm 104: Thou dost hide Thy face, they are dismayed; Thou dost take away their spirit, they expire, And return to their dust. Thou dost send forth Thy Spirit, they are created; And Thou dost renew the face of the ground.
Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.
Briefly define each attribute before showing references. In the midst of a Psalm describing all God does in His creation, we find these words.

13. The Holy Spirit Has the Attributes of God
Eternity
John 14:16 “And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever.”
Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Love
Romans 15:30-31 Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be delivered from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints.
Holiness
The very designation Holy Spirit indicates that this member of the trinity shares this attribute.
Truth
1 John 5:6-7 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is the truth.

14. The Holy Spirit Performs the Works of God
Creation
Genesis 1:2 And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Regeneration
Ezekiel 37:14 “And I will put My Spirit within you, and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,” declares the LORD.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Resurrection of the Dead
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.
Define each term before showing references. Ezek 37 is in the context of national apostasy, with Israel scattered among the nations. Only God has the power to give life.

15. The Holy Spirit Performs the Works of God
Inspiration of the Scriptures
2 Peter 1: But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.
Conception of Christ in the Virgin Mary
Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.”
Conviction of Sin
John 16:8-11 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
The Spirit not only inspired the Scriptures themselves, but superintended the whole process.

16. The Holy Spirit Is Associated With God In Such A Way That He Is Considered Equal With God
Matthew 3:16-17 And after being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.“
Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit…
1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. And there are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.
2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
Ephesians 2:18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
1 Peter 1:2 [chosen] according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.
This is the last verse in 2 Cor.

17. Next Time: The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
and
The Holy Spirit and Christ